
Did you know that the End of General Support (EOGS) for VMware vSphere 5.5 and vSAN 5.5 is September 19, 2018? September is right around the corner! ATEC Group can work with you to develop the best vSphere upgrade plan for your organization.
Upgrading to vSphere 6.5 or 6.7
To maintain your full level of Support and Subscription Services, VMware recommends upgrading to vSphere 6.5 or vSphere 6.7. By upgrading to vSphere 6.5/6.7, you not only get all the latest capabilities of vSphere but can also take advantage of the latest capabilities and release of vSAN, which is licensed separately.
VMware vCloud Suite 5 and vSphere with Operations Management customers running vSphere 5.5 are also recommended to upgrade to vSphere 6.5/6.7.
Please note: VMware has extended general support for vSphere 6.5 to a full five years from date of release, which will end on November 15, 2021. End of General Support for vSphere 6.7 will also be on November 15, 2021.
If you are unable to upgrade from vSphere 5.5 before EOGS and are active on Support and Subscription Services, you may purchase Extended Support in one-year increments for up to two years beyond the EOGS date.
Additional Upgrade Scenarios from VMware
VMware has also stated additional actions which need to be taken, depending on your individual scenario. See below:
vSphere with Operations Management
This bundle of vSphere and VMware vRealize Operations allows you to upgrade the versions of individual components independent of each other. If you are using vSphere 5.5 as part of vSphere with Operations Management, you will need to upgrade your vSphere with Operations Management 5.5 license key to be able to upgrade the vSphere component. You can reference the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix to check for the EOGS date for the version of vRealize Operations you are using and the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices for the product version compatibility.
vCloud Suite 5
This bundle of vSphere and VMware’s management products will also require an upgrade of your license key to vCloud Suite 7 or later. Upgrading to vCloud Suite 2017 is encouraged to leverage the vRealize Suite 2017 multi-vendor hybrid cloud management platform. You can reference the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix to check the EOGS date for each version of the products in the bundle and the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices for the product version compatibility.
vSAN 5.5
This product is embedded in the vSphere 5.5 kernel and by upgrading vSphere, vSAN customers will also upgrade vSAN to a newer release. You will need to upgrade your vSAN 5.5 license key to a newer release license key. Please confirm hardware compatibility by referencing the vSAN Compatibility Guide and, if necessary, make appropriate hardware upgrades as needed to maintain compatibility.
*vSphere upgrade content above has been provided by VMware